Zoo Do

We haven’t been to the Santa Barbara Zoo since the grandkids moved away (😭), 

so it was nice to visit and see the changes. 

We got there just before noon, as the fog was burning off and the temps rising. 

Axolotl selfie

I thought the animals would be asleep or hiding but a surprising number were active. 

Two of our favorite big cats weren’t visible. Tamar, the Amur Leopard, was cooling off behind the scenes according to a keeper and Kisa, the Snow Leopard, passed away last year. 

Lions Ralph and Felicia* ⬆️ were snoozing on their favorite rock, which just happens to be at eye level of the viewing window. 

 New Red Panda daddy (they had twins!); flamingo stance; Jac and the Hornbill (great band name!)

Highlight of the day for me was watching a keeper toss the gorillas their enrichment blocks from a high window, something we’d never seen before. 

Jac’s fav was watching the Island Fox walking up his hill in plain view, then lying down for a rest right in front of her. 

And also feeding Theo, the new dominant male (Michael also passed away recently😔) on the newly enhanced, very nice giraffe feeding platform. 

Jac has updated her list, so we have new exciting places to go in the 11 days we have remaining. Time is going much too fast!

* You know you’re a zoo regular when you know most of the animals by name…

Spoonbill Progress

I’ve been putting this one off since… February?? Mainly because it’s so big and I didn’t enjoy making the last giant one (loved it once it was done tho!)

There are only 2 birds remaining… and I really want to work on other projects… 

Knobby knees

and I was concerned about running out of big pieces of background fabric if I did the smaller owl first… 

 This is 4! separate pieces taped together. Awkward!

It’s not quite done - 6 multi-sheet pattern pieces remain to sew - but it’s getting there. I really love her face and knobby knees. 

 First time Coco has ‘helped’ me sew. That look says ‘pet me now’

Hoping to finish tomorrow if we survive taking after we take Jac to the zoo. 

List Clearing

Today Jac had a choice of the zoo or Chuck E Cheese. She chose the mouse (which worked out well as we needed to take my car for service nearby.)

We started with lunch at the mall, a visit to their play area - a favorite with all the grands over the years - and finally the mouse house. 

Jac wanted us have our picture taken together in one of the booths that then turned the photo into a drawing. 

I didn’t have high expectations but it turned out to be a treasure. 

Love both of these. 

Palette Cleanser

Hate to admit it, but I’m a tiny bit tired of foundation paper piecing. So for the 3 4-day holiday I decided to make something just for fun, with the idea it would be finished in those 4 days and I’d get back to FPP.*

It might have worked but Jac wanted to play games (she’s a Battleship star),

and build forts, and watch movies (Jac: “this is my favorite movie!” Me: “what happens in it?” Jac: “I don’t know. I’ve never actually watched it…” 🙄). 

Plus Coco has learned how to play and to communicate be the boss of me. She yowled, then patted her new toy until I got the idea and tuned it on for her. Now we do that every night when she gets the zoomies around 11:30. 

Which is a long way of saying I finished a new quilt, in one of my favorite patterns. Still debating whether to add borders… it’s 48x48” now, which seems a good size for a lap or wheelchair quilt. 

I still have a bunch of starched and ironed red, white and blue fabric. Rather than put it away I may make another of this wallhanging. It’s the only quilt I’ve made that I kinda regret giving away. It’ll be easy, right? It’s only 144 half-square triangles…

*I’ve signed up for another FPP block of the month, that started July 1, so I need the birds - and Christmas Wonderland and the embroidered bees - done asap. 

Aquarium Day

We were up with the birds this morning, ready to hit the aquarium. (Ok, we left the hotel at 10:30, which isn’t bad considering Jac and I are both night owls.) 

Jac said she loved her room on QM and “it was the best night ever!’

Aquarium of the Pacific is two stories packed with exhibits and hands-on fun, 

 

with lots of docents ready to answer questions or explain things at a kid level. 

Jac taking a picture of us….

…taking a picture of her

I was looking forward to seeing my favorite sea dragons but they are no longer there. 

 Vibrant pink fish; giant King crab; Garybaldie (he loves these); seahorse

Guess I’ll have to make do with an entire wing of jellyfish on special exhibit. So cool! 

 Flame Jellies

Jac loved the touchable sharks and manta rays, 

 Petting a shark, ray and starfish

axolotl tank, 

 Jac kept singing ‘ I’m a hermit crab’ 🎶

kids playground and the ice cream cart (we were very tired by then). 

 This puffin was as fascinated with Jac as she was with him

She took videos of every exhibit (how much memory does her phone have??) 

All the penguins had little bead bracelets on a flipper to show their name. Jac kept going back and forth, tank to chart, looking up who was who. 

and offered several times to take pics of me and Pop together. 💕

This was so funny. See the big(er) red frogs on the left? That was all we noticed at first… then we spotted the tiny red frogs on the right, taking turns jumping from the ledge to the top of the leaf. You could see their little brains saying ‘I’m next! It’s my turn!’

Such a fun day.

 Glow in the dark underwater plants!

Next up… Santa Barbara Zoo? Maybe? 

Note: ALL the elevators in the closest parking structure are out of commission and have been for so long that it’s noted on the aquarium website and on posted signs around the structure. Not a good look for Long Beach's prime tourist area.

 Just a few of my many! jellyfish pics…